Trafford's Trading Club

Chapter 1184: Chapter 25: Headwind

As usual, the maid entered the boss’s study with cleaning tools in hand.

In fact, the club’s peculiarities make dust accumulation unlikely—even in the far-off future, a thin layer of dust will never settle here.

She just got into the habit of doing certain things.

But today, Luo Qiu was in the study… the maid did not notice the master’s presence—this situation could only be that her master intended it to be so.

Sitting in the chair, Luo Qiu leaned back naturally, allowing its weight to support him as it automatically reclined. With his eyes closed, he seemed asleep or lost in thought.

The door had already made noise, something the maid couldn’t control—because she didn’t know her master was in the study beforehand.

“I was just thinking about something and didn’t want to be disturbed,” Luo Qiu slowly opened his eyes and smiled faintly, “Every time I come back, there’s a bit more noise; it’s not as quiet as it used to be.”

Aside from Tai Yinzi being tucked into the mainframe, Da Zhe and Nero were also residing here today, and even Luo Ya, who rarely stepped out of her room. If one included Adam, a machine assisting in the ‘Main God Project,’ it was indeed different from the past when only the maid and boss were around.

“I’ll make some tea for the master.”

“No need,” Luo Qiu waved his hand, “I bought some soy milk on the way here. It’s been many years since I last had it during school days when passing by; the aunt has been selling it for over a decade now. It’s quite remarkable the taste hasn’t changed… You should try some too.”

On the desk, the soy milk that he bought slowly appeared. Who knows when he bought it, but since the boss brought it back, it was naturally still warm.

The maid approached Luo Qiu slowly, realizing only when she reached him that there were two standing bullets on his desk.

She didn’t drink the soy milk but circled behind Luo Qiu, gently touching his hair and massaging his scalp.

No matter the time, this kind of massage was always comforting.

“Two bullets,” You Ye murmured, “Master… are you thinking about Chen Mingming?”

“Partly,” Luo Qiu replied, enjoying the massage while his gaze focused on the two bullets on the desk, “He gave away the gun.”

“Is master planning to observe Chen Mingming as before?” the maid suddenly asked.

“Not necessarily,” Luo Qiu answered casually, closing his eyes and leaning back further, seemingly intent on wholeheartedly enjoying the maid’s massage.

Yet at this moment, Boss Luo suddenly spread open his hand, releasing a wisp of black gas from his palm… Instantly, the maid’s actions halted.

She could sense an evil will within the wisp of black gas.

But Luo Qiu lightly clenched his hand, dispersing the black gas effortlessly, and said indifferently, “Ran into some troubling things a few days ago, something seemed eager to jump out again.”

As long as it doesn’t turn into the state of the previous master, there will inevitably be times when the master displays negative emotions… the maid knew this well. Though she had only served at the club for about three hundred years, she existed in another form before that.

The former master wiped out several realms due to such negative emotions—so it’s no surprise seeing Luo Qiu in this state now.

“Has master already learned to subdue the negatives freely?”

This was the maid’s surprise—even she had been subtly affected by negatives before she realized. If not for Luo Qiu’s timely intervention, it might have caused trouble.

“In fact, it happened once before,” Luo Qiu said calmly, “Last time, it caused quite a stir. But at that time, I wanted to see how far it could leap, later finding it uninteresting, so I dispersed it casually. This time, it’s much weaker.”

“That indicates the negative can’t really affect you much anymore.” The maid smiled contentedly.

Luo Qiu looked at his hand and suddenly said, “The new game expansion has been updated, hasn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“I’m not planning to go out today,” Luo Qiu stood up, holding the maid’s hand, “Come, accompany me for a walk inside.”

Master’s mood seems good… as does hers, especially after that evening’s date.

“Oh, and bring Luo Ya along; she might adapt well to the game’s world.”

“Then… I’ll first create an account for Luo Ya.”

…

In the deep recesses of Demon Earth Continent, within a lightning-enveloped ancient castle, Tai Yinzi, leading a group of skeletons in a dance, suddenly sneezed.

“Damn it! Who’s speaking ill of Grandpa Taoist!”

…

…

Mobile phone.

——I’ve completed the withdrawal procedures; you don’t have to attend school these days, just rest at home for a while. Mom has some matters tonight, find something to eat yourself.

——Okay.

A transfer notification appeared on the screen, the explanation was for meal money.

He didn’t collect it; instead, he placed the phone on the desk casually, focusing back on the book in his hand.

This book was borrowed from the library, initially unread, and he intended to finish it over the next few days.

Besides him, the classroom was empty.

Suddenly, a noisy commotion outside disturbed the quiet.

Chen Mingming closed his book, walked to the window, drew back the curtain, and looked outside—at the corridor below.

A few boys were running wildly ahead, laughing. One of them was swinging a pair of pants in the air—the students on both sides of the road burst into laughter.

Behind them, a boy wearing only underpants was chasing angrily—Zhao Le.

“Give them back to me! Return my pants!!”

“Here you go!”

The boy holding the pants sneered and tossed them—not to Zhao Le but onto a nearby tree, the pants instantly snagged by branches.

Zhao Le seemed to want to rush forward but hesitated upon seeing the pants hung on the tree—and as for those few boys, after jeering a few more times, they vanished into the crowd.

Zhao Le looked at the students watching, suddenly feeling dizzy, and could only try to pull at his clothes, attempting to cover up.

But the crowd did not disperse, the looks of amusement outnumbered those of sympathy, and the hands holding up mobile phone screens were far more than the ones offering help.

Chen Mingming blushed furiously, suddenly feeling like this world was a gigantic whirlpool, pressing on him, twisting every image.

Not knowing how he would get through this predicament next… Chen Mingming didn’t look, just silently returned to his original position, put on his headphones, and reopened the book he hadn’t finished, reading it carefully word by word.

…

…

“Team Leader Zhou.”

“Hello, Team Leader Zhou!”

Along the way, Zhou Yusheng responded to the colleagues greeting him while quickly making his way back to the place where the special case team meetings were held—it was almost dinner time.

After being sent home by a colleague last night, his emotions got out of control, and he didn’t even know if he passed out or was too tired and fell asleep.

The sleep was so long, long enough for him to repeatedly think about many things, lasting until the afternoon of the next day. He slowly came back to his senses—after waking up, Zhou Yusheng didn’t bother tidying up his home, hurriedly rushing back to the station.

Perhaps due to having rested well, Zhou Yusheng’s complexion looked a bit better.

“Old Zhou… Looks like you’ve had a good rest this time.” Seeing Zhou Yusheng hurriedly walking in, Officer Ma who had rabbit-like eyes casually greeted him.

“How is it?” Zhou Yusheng sat down and directly asked.

“Just in time, Lin Feng just came back, you can listen to what he has to say.” Officer Ma pointed to a figure who was preparing the projection.

At this moment Lin Feng made an OK gesture, then signaled to dim the lights, turned on the projector, and several sets of photos immediately appeared on the screen.

Lin Feng seriously said, “According to Officer Ma’s orders, another colleague and I rushed to Wu Rong’s hometown. With the assistance of local police, we quickly found the house Wu Rong rented… This is the freezer we discovered in her house.”

The photos were taken very clearly, allowing the contents of the freezer to be seen clearly.

Lin Feng took a deep breath and said, “The deceased, Wu Rong, the corpse was dissected with a sharp weapon after death, but the degree of dissection is not as severe as Wang Liang’s, only the head, limbs, and torso were separated into thirteen pieces, after piecing together there is no missing part… The killer may not have had time to process more or failed to further fragment.”

“How did you discover it?” Zhou Yusheng frowned and asked.

Lin Feng said, “Similar to how Wang Liang’s body was discovered. It was probably the abrupt power outage a few days ago causing the circuit short. But it wasn’t the freezer’s circuit that shorted, but the wiring of the rented house. I looked at that area, an urban village, wires pulled randomly, indeed very prone to short circuits. When we found the house, we smelled a foul odor, opened the door, and found the freezer because it was placed in the center of the room and easily visible.”

“Asked the landlord?” Officer Ma asked with a thumbs up.

“Asked as well.” Lin Feng hurriedly replied, “But the situation is basically the same as Wang Liang’s landlord, after signing the rental contract, the rent was settled via phone transfer, not directly met… Additionally, we also investigated Wu Rong’s relatives and some friends, and found during this period, Wu Rong consistently updated her moments in her circle of friends—the last update was seven days ago.”

Officer Ma and Zhou Yusheng exchanged a glance, Zhou Yusheng said, “The last time Wang Liang updated his moments was also seven days ago. From the modus operandi, it’s highly likely the killer is the same person.”

Officer Ma nodded, then looked at Lin Feng and said, “Checked Wu Rong’s social relationships?”

Lin Feng said, “Checked, Wu Rong’s personality is not very good, she has a bad temper, and doesn’t interact much even with family. She also resigned from this city then left… I went to her workplace before returning and found out that she didn’t really offend anyone to death. But basically, her colleagues couldn’t stand her, so she often found herself alone.”

“First Wang Liang, then Wu Rong…” Officer Ma rubbed his reddened eyes, his head feeling like mush.

Zhou Yusheng tapped the table with a pen.

The conference room suddenly plunged into a silent atmosphere.

After a while, Zhou Yusheng slowly asked, “What about Zhao Le? How is his situation investigation going?”

Another colleague stood up—because Lin Feng was temporarily dispatched, he was responsible for the follow-up investigation after the inquiry.

“We’ve understood that during Zhang Xiaoqin’s hospitalization, Zhao Le went to the hospital almost daily, sometimes even staying overnight for vigilance. A few times when he didn’t come at night, it was due to exams and the need to study, but he didn’t miss any exams… After Zhang Xiaoqin was discharged, Zhao Le kept accompanying her at home, he was there every day, neighbors can attest… Oh right, Officer Lin also had me check Zhao Le’s travel records, from the time Zhang Xiaoqin had the accident up to now, Zhao Le has no records of leaving this city.”

Officer Ma sighed and said, “Assuming the killer is the same person, and boldly assuming Zhao Le is the killer. But Wu Rong’s hometown is four hours by express train from the city, planes while quick, cannot avoid leaving a record. Besides, considering other time factors, the round trip time would need at least a day… However, this kid has no travel records… If he rode a chicken car, the round trip would be three days, in other words… this assumption doesn’t hold?”

Actually, the later inspection report also mentioned, at the crime scene, no usable traces were found, not even a fingerprint was left—evidently, the killer was carefully handling it.

The investigation direction seemed to suddenly hit a dead end.

“Go investigate a bit more, focus on those women connected with Wang Liang.” Zhou Yusheng sighed, “These women were also deceived in terms of money and emotions, and through Wu Rong’s instigation, the friction arose… Although speaking of motive might be slim.”

“Understood, Team Leader Zhou.” Lin Feng nodded.

Zhou Yusheng said, “Try your best to urge the police on that side to provide a detailed inspection report. Also, I see there’re several photos on Wang Liang and Wu Rong’s moments, verify these photos to see where they were taken. The killer knew to use their moments to fake the news they were still alive, must be a very planned person. This time, if it wasn’t for the power outage exposing the bodies, we wouldn’t know when we could have found out… But the time has been dragged on for so long, many clues may have already been severed, leaving the killer plenty of time to destroy most of the evidence. But justice has long arms, I believe there will definitely be a flaw, everyone work hard! Let’s adjourn for now, keeping busy with your tasks!”

Everyone work hard, is almost Zhou Yusheng’s go-to phrase to let people work overtime.

When most people had left, Zhou Yusheng looked at Officer Ma and said, “Old Ma, you should go back and rest.”

“Oh… alright, truly can’t endure anymore.” Officer Ma nodded.

But at this moment, Xiaobao hurriedly ran over, holding a document, placed it in front of Officer Ma and Zhou Yusheng, “Officer Ma, Team Leader Zhou, there’s some bad news to tell you…”

“What’s this?”

“This is Chang Xiao’s preliminary autopsy report.” Xiaobao said seriously, “Chang Xiao’s manner of death is the same as that suspect in the detention center… both shot but no bullet found!”

“What?” Zhou Yusheng abruptly stood up.

Officer Ma lowered his head, rubbing his forehead, moaning, “I want to go home…”

…

…

Returning to the door of the family, Zhao Le took a deep breath, a smile blossoming on his silent face.

He opened the door, lifting the bag in his hand, saying cheerfully, “Sis, I’m back, the supermarket has discounts today, I bought your favorite pork knuckle, tonight we have braised pork knuckle!”

The door to Zhang Xiaoqin’s room didn’t open.

Zhao Le gently sighed, once again lifting a smile, “I’ll make it now, it’ll be ready soon!”